COVER ME: Listen to the Music (In A Different Way)

Dansations — Thu, 05/10/2012 - 14:15

COVER ME: Listen to the Music (In A Different Way)

We’ve all heard them on the Celestial / broadcast or Internet stations before and had this reaction: “I know that song – but I like the original. “X” did it better.” We’re talking about “covers” – songs recorded by people after they’ve been made famous (or not) by another singer or songwriter. We will always have an affinity to the version of the song we grew up with. That’s not a reason to disavow other versions of the song though. In fact, there’s an interesting idea here – embrace them – in a unique way.

In a recent article (HERE) we talked about Theme Parties. Well, what about a “Cover” party? One of the cool things about a computer & MP3’s/M4A’s or other digital formats is the ability to “tag” music. (Dansations uses the “Comments” section for this purpose). So when we come across a song that’s a ‘cover’, we do just that. A recent project we did revealed over 1,000 songs from Dinah Washington’s version of “Unforgettable” (1959) of the Nat King Cole original (1952) through a recent Bonnie Raitt recording of “Right Down The Line” (2012) by the recently deceased Gerry Rafferty (1978). Some bands – The Beatles - have been covered in all genres of music including Jazz (Tom Scott) Rock (from David Lindly, Santana, Ben Harper) R&B (Aretha Franklin), Mash-Up’s (DJ Aggro1, Bobby Martini, etc.) & the Glee Cast! Other bands have had a one-hit wonder that’s been covered by another band that had a (one-time!) hit with it. Lipps Inc.’s disco-filled “Funkytown” (1979) was given a rock/new wave/alternative re-working by Pseudo Echo in 1987 (in both a single & remix version!). Some covers (Naked Eyes – “(There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me” (1982)) are extremely well known more so than their original version (Lou Johnson in 1964). Still others (like Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” 1983) have been covered by bands or in a way you never would imagine: Alternative act Goldfinger (2002); a bossa-nova version by 4th Street Collective (2005) & a Rock version by Hugo (2010) replete with an expletive.

There are also many artists (Bob Dylan, Elton John, Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Tom Petty et al) that have an entire album (or in some cases more than one) dedicated to covers and interpretations of their music. Many times you can find soundtracks of movies you’ve never seen (or considered seeing!) full of covers (Sabrina The Teenage Witch 1998-Sugar Ray – Abracadabra by Steve Miler). Sometimes band are captured in concert doing a cover song and it becomes highly sought after by the public or collectors. Occasionally these turn out to be hits or recorded in the studio for release later. (Tom Petty’s version of Van Morrison/Them’s “Gloria” at the Fillmore in San Francisco) comes to mind. It was on the DVD of these show’s and I can proudly say I witnessed it live J !

The point here, besides giving you a cool “when I have some free time” project is that this is one more way to add a unique element to a party or celebration. We recently performed at a wedding with requests for German & Italian songs. After some research into the artists the German groom suggested we located a version of “Iko Iko” IN GERMAN (and a very peppy, upbeat version too) that turned out to be a huge hit. (We also played the German version of the aforementioned “99 Balloons”!) When you plan your next party, perhaps this is an idea that none of your friends have tried. Why not be the first? And who knows – you may even hear yourself saying: “Wow, this version is so different – it’s COOL. I like it more than the original!” Different, Cool, Covered – as Led Zeppelin said best: “The Song Remains the Same” (to which a bunch of bands responded with 2 releases of cover versions in 1989 & 1993 “The Song Retains The Name”)!
Until next time……..